Mobile phones, particularly in the form of so-called smartphones, have continuously become larger in terms of their surface area in the interest of enlarging the display. Despite their low thickness, this makes them increasingly uncomfortable to hold because of their large width when they are grabbed on the edges with the fingers of the user. This feeling is especially strong when the user has to hold the smartphone for an extended period of time during use. This is even more true for small tablet computers that combine the functionality of smartphones and tablets.
Thus, it is desirable to have a holding device that can be attached to a smartphone or tablet computer to enable holding the device over an extended period of time in a comfortable manner, and to also improve protection against unintentional dropping of the device. In that, the holding device itself must not make the held device cumbersome to use.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,560,031 B2 discloses a holding device that is attachable, e.g. by bonding, to the backside of an MP3 media player, the holding device consisting of a button-like holding grip changeable between a flat collapsed position and an extended position, the holding grip comprising a socket part attachable to the MP3 media player, a lid and an accordion or bellows arranged therebetween. The lid can be latched to the socket in the flat collapsed position of the holding grip and can be actuated into an extended position by means of the resilient accordion. The accordion is conically tapered towards the socket in order to be collapsible into a flat form. However, it appears to be unsatisfactory that the accordion must necessarily be tapered towards the socket in order to be flat collapsible, and that the connection to the socket is weakened because of this reduced diameter, that the accordion further only allows for a relatively constricted extension, and that the holding device can only inconveniently be grabbed by persons with relatively thick fingers. In addition, this bears the risk of fatigue failure of the accordion.